Just Beachy
My favorite time to be on the beach is at night (but I’ll settle for morning or afternoon, too. A bad day on the beach is better than a good day at work.)
The ocean at night is black velvet…perforated with a thousand pin pricks of light. Sea and sky are joined only to be momentarily divided by white caps of foam that crash — herds of white horses galloping to the shore.
I have the best memories of being on the sand at night…chasing sand crabs. We perfected the catching of the little creatures by moonlight. It takes a quick eye to spot the movement in the shadows but a light of any sort spooks them and then you’re out of the chase. So you focus and train your eye to spot the subtle movements in the colorless sand.
Once spotted in their nocturnal movements, a handful of sand tossed on them will stop them short. Then you can, if you move briskly, scoop their tiny bodies up in cupped hands. They tickle as they struggle in their temporary prison, desperate to be on their way and somewhat angry with you for interrupting their mission. So we set them gently down…to run along to wherever clandestine destination sand crabs seek.
We taught the girls, (KT, my daughter, and TT and WT, my nieces) to catch them, too. They can outdo any boys on our nighttime hunts. They have past proven performance, much to the shock of some young bucks from New Jersey. I thought I was going to laugh myself silly when WT threatened to toss her catch onto one of the curious boys causing him to jump back and screech like a girl!
It’s a dance of sorts…to run along with the tiny denizens of the night beach. A raucous, playful sort of dance with giggles and leaps and then stillness as one observes a small part of life caught up for an instant then let loose.